E3 2014: Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited Is Another Chance to Spend Hundreds of Hours Grinding

If I had to name my least favorite thing about time, it would be how stubbornly linear it is. Always moving forward, without caring one lick about my feelings. For those who are as peeved at time as I am, Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited has the cure for what ails you. Nagi Clockwork is a precocious adventurer who doesn't limit herself to present-day exploration. As a time traveler, she can view a story unfold from when it started as a budding seedling all the way into the blooming tree it will eventually become. That's the narrative hook of this latest journey through Disgaea's oddball universe. Have fun examining the characters you've grown to love from angles that you might not have even imagined.

Sadly, the promise of this cylindrical narrative was conveyed to me through the developer's assertions, rather than my own experience with the game, so I can only imagine what will actually transpire. I should probably admit that I've never played a Disgaea game, even though I've had Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention on my Vita for some time. It's an intimidating game to begin. The main draw--aside from the outrageous stories--involves endless grinding that can make hundreds of hours vanish in the blink of a cat's eye. This latest entry doesn't alleviate those fears, and actually adds loads of extra content for the many who enjoy being lost within this inviting world. Every bit of downloadable content is included, adding countless more reasons to raise the levels of your characters and weapons.

If you're intimately familiar with Disgaea, you already know that the most powerful magical attacks have an omega prefix. Well, change your preconceptions, because now there is a peta attack. Normally, I wouldn't comment on this piece of minutia. It's something to strive for once you're sucked into a game, but only serves as trivia when looking at it from afar. But there's an odd aspect to this peta-branded attack that stood out. You see, peta gets attached to other spells to signify its power. Peta wind, peta ice, and so forth. Do you see where this is going? Your strongest flaming attack is peta fire, which, if you say that out loud, sounds uncomfortably close to pedophile. And this was intentional according to the NIS America representative who showed me the demo. I don't think that this makes the game worse or that you should boycott it, but I did want to point out how tasteless this is.

Moving on to more lighthearted information. Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness introduced a cheat shop within the game. This doesn't let you get extra turns or infinite health; rather, you adjust the rewards you earn from a successful fight. Slide the gold, experience, and mana gauges to the levels you want. This is perfect if you're grinding for extra levels and don't care one bit about money. Just push that gold bar all the way down, temper how much mana you get, and focus on racking up that sweet, sweet experience. It's a nice feature that should streamline the leveling process for people who desperately want to maximize their characters and weapons, so be happy that it made the transition from the most recent Disgaea to this new one.

At the end on the demonstration, I asked the developers when Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited would be released. I was worried that it would be pushed to 2015 as is the theme of this year's E3. But fear not! Disgaea is coming to the Vita later this year, so clear your schedule for the prinny-blasting chaos.

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